The Professional Counselor | Volume 11, Issue 4 437 some participants discussed instances of trauma, depression, and anxiety. Future researchers could examine specific mental health disorders and their comorbidity among ballet dancers by using the GAD-7 (Spitzer et al., 2006) for assessing anxiety and the BDI-II (Beck et al., 1996) for depression. Conclusion This qualitative study explored ballet culture and identity and their impact on professional ballet dancers’ mental health experiences, which resulted in the four themes of (a) ballet culture—“it’s not all tutus and tiaras”; (b) professional ballet dancers’ identity—“it is a part of me”; (c) mental health experiences—“you have to compartmentalize”; and (d) counseling and advocacy—“the dance population is unique.” A distinct culture exists for professional ballet dancers that includes traditions passed down since the 14th century. Hence, tradition, dedication, and commitment to their profession shape professional ballet dancers’ identities. Further, their identities straddle the environments of performing artists and elite athletes, creating contextually distinctive experiences. For counselors to adequately support professional ballet dancers, they must first build their awareness of ballet culture and the unique mental health needs and resiliencies of dancers. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript. References Åkesdotter, C., Kenttä, G., Eloranta, S., & Franck, J. (2020). The prevalence of mental health problems in elite athletes. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 23(4), 329–335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2019.10.022 American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA code of ethics. https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-codeof-ethics.pdf Arcelus, J., Witcomb, G. L., & Mitchell, A. (2014). Prevalence of eating disorders amongst dancers: A systemic review and meta-analysis. European Eating Disorders Review, 22(2), 92–101. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.2271 Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. (1996). Beck Depression Inventory–II [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t00742-000 Biernacki, J. L., Stracciolini, A. S., Fraser, J., Micheli, L. J., & Sugimoto, D. (2021). Risk factors for lower-extremity injuries in female ballet dancers: A systematic review. Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, 31(2), e64–e79. Clark, T., Gupta, A., & Ho, C. H. (2014). Developing a dancer wellness program employing developmental evaluation. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(731), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00731 Creswell, J. (2012). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). SAGE. Gorczynski, P. F., Coyle, M., & Gibson, K. (2017). Depressive symptoms in high-performance athletes and nonathletes: A comparative meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 51(18), 1348–1354. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-096455 Hays, D. G., & Singh, A. A. (2012). Qualitative inquiry in clinical and educational settings. Guilford. Hebard, S. P., & Lamberson, K. A. (2017). Enhancing the sport counseling specialty: A call for a unified identity. The Professional Counselor, 7(4), 375–384. https://doi.org/10.15241/sph.7.4.375 Husserl, E. (1970). The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology: An introduction to phenomenological philosophy. Northwestern University Press. Kirstein, L. (1970). Dance: A short history of classic theatrical dancing. Praeger.
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